undefined | Better HN

0 pointsnox1012y ago0 comments

Should this apply to everything? Someone buys a cupcake. Instead of eating it they throw it away. Is the person that made the cupcake owed something more than the $ they already got for it because the cupcake was not eaten and so their time fell into the void?

How about all the people that built a house or car that a movie production destroys? (less often now that everything is CGI).

Also, if the movie sucks, it often reflects badly on all of those people. They try to get work on a new movie, people look at the old movie, see it sucks, don't hire them.

0 comments

pradn2y ago

If I had a cupcake shop, someone came in to buy a cupcake, and then immediately threw it on the floor - I'd be aghast. Regular people take pride in their work. Market abstractions of "it's yours now" don't approximate how people actually feel about the objects they produce. People don't want to be alienated from their labor!

troupo2y ago

> Someone buys a cupcake.

In this case someone made a cupcake. Instead of selling it to potential customers, they destroy the cupcake and claim it was a tax-deductible expense

> Also, if the movie sucks, it often reflects badly on all of those people. They try to get work on a new movie, people look at the old movie, see it sucks, don't hire them.

So why are so many bad movies released then?

krisoft2y ago

> Instead of selling it to potential customers, they destroy the cupcake and claim it was a tax-deductible expense

But isn’t that thing actually common practice? If a bakery accidentaly ruins a batch of cupcakes they toss them to the bin. And of course the ingredients and labour involved in those cupcakes will count as an expense. They had costs (some flour, some eggs, some employee time) and they had zero income from those burnt cupcakes (or even worse, costs associated with cleanup and disposal!).

When you put it this way it sounds quite ordinary. Do you think I should take away some different message from your analogy?

fzeroracer2y ago

The failure in this analogy is that it's not the baker tossing away the cupcakes, it's a tax accountant in the background.

A baker creates a batch of cupcakes. They're about to sell this batch to a customer, but then the tax accountant comes in and tells them to toss the batch because the customer might not like them. So the batch gets binned, despite neither the customer or the tax accountant having tasted any cupcakes.

Then they write that off as a business expense.

troupo2y ago

That's why analogies are always wrong :)

CJefferson2y ago

No, but the person buying the cupcake shouldn't be allowed to count it as a loss for their taxes if they made a plan to throw the cupcake into the void when they could have easily sold it.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsnox1012y ago0 comments

How about all the people that built a house or car that a movie production destroys? (less often now that everything is CGI).

Also, if the movie sucks, it often reflects badly on all of those people. They try to get work on a new movie, people look at the old movie, see it sucks, don't hire them.

0 comments

pradn2y ago

troupo2y ago

> Someone buys a cupcake.

In this case someone made a cupcake. Instead of selling it to potential customers, they destroy the cupcake and claim it was a tax-deductible expense

> Also, if the movie sucks, it often reflects badly on all of those people. They try to get work on a new movie, people look at the old movie, see it sucks, don't hire them.

So why are so many bad movies released then?

krisoft2y ago

> Instead of selling it to potential customers, they destroy the cupcake and claim it was a tax-deductible expense

When you put it this way it sounds quite ordinary. Do you think I should take away some different message from your analogy?

fzeroracer2y ago

The failure in this analogy is that it's not the baker tossing away the cupcakes, it's a tax accountant in the background.

Then they write that off as a business expense.

troupo2y ago

That's why analogies are always wrong :)

CJefferson2y ago

No, but the person buying the cupcake shouldn't be allowed to count it as a loss for their taxes if they made a plan to throw the cupcake into the void when they could have easily sold it.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse